Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-33665

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand the use of artificial intelligence and digital tools in healthcare delivery, and how these can be applied to address challenges in rural healthcare.

Artificial intelligence is already proving itself to be a force for good in our health and social care service, providing a range of healthcare solutions that are transforming services for the better and in a number of cases, saving lives. An example where AI activity is already taking place in rural areas is through the North of Scotland AI Strategy for Health and Social Care.

AI is a comparatively new technology, and a number of projects and applications for our healthcare services are currently at the research and development stage, or being tested and piloted within particular areas or within single NHS Boards. This is allowing us to learn from what works and what has potential for national scale.

We also recognise that, to harness the benefits of AI at a national level, we need to ensure that our data available across NHS and social care services is fit for purpose to enable AI to work safely and effectively. It’s why, in partnership with COSLA, we launched our first Data Strategy for Health and Social Care in February 2023, committing to adopt a national approach to the ethical, transparent consideration of adoption and implementation of AI-based tools, products and services.

As part of our commitments set out in our Data Strategy we intend to publish a framework for the safe and ethical use of AI across health and social care. This will take place by July 2025 and will set out more information on our approach to AI implementation in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33664

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with NHS boards to enhance access to mobile diagnostic units in rural areas, and what progress has been made in the last five years.

Neil Gray: Since 2021, we have provided three permanent CT scanners to support core diagnostic imaging capacity within Boards, including a mobile CT pod which is deployed flexibly to Boards that require additional capacity. In addition, one further mobile CT and seven mobile MRI scanners are being used across multiple NHS Boards to provide additional capacity.

In the last 2 years, the Scottish Government has supported the North Imaging Alliance to:

Test a regional mobile MRI service, hosted within one of the North region boards, with the potential to be used anywhere in the North or across Scotland.
Provide additional capacity (over and above existing mobile MRI arrangements) to accelerate work on reducing waiting times for MRI.

During 2024-25:

The regional mobile MRI van is anticipated to remove circa 3,700 patients from waiting lists in the North, participating boards are Grampian, Highland, Orkney, and Tayside.
2,408 patients have received scans to date and have been removed from waiting lists
This has saved NHS Orkney approximately £180k and meant 313 patients were able to receive scans locally rather than having to travel further afield.

Significant additional activity is already underway following the allocation of £30 million funding to target reductions to the national backlogs that built up throughout the pandemic. This includes over 40,000 extra diagnostic procedures.

Question reference: S6W-33748

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total expenditure on social media-related activities, including management, advertising, and content creation, has been in each of the last five years.

Social media related activities undertaken by the Scottish Government encompass abroad set of teams and workstreams. A significant proportion of the management of Scottish Government accounts on social media platforms and the production of organic content, is managed by internal teams.

Communication to specific audiences via social media is an integral part of every Scottish Government marketing campaign and incorporates e.g. videos, paid advertisements, website and social content and influencer marketing. Scottish Government marketing content and campaigns run across multiple social media platforms (in either paid-for or organic form) as part of integrated marketing and communications campaigns. All social media activity is developed to support defined policy outcomes and in line with key Scottish Government priorities.

Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ including a breakdown by discipline and media type. As the 2024-25 financial year is not yet complete the information is not included.

Question reference: S6W-33705

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken since May 2021 to improve the digitisation of medical records.

Question reference: S6W-33653

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in implementing telemedicine solutions in rural healthcare settings, and what impact this has had on patient outcomes over the last five years.

See answer to question S6W-33537 on 27 January 2025 regarding progress. Telemedicine related developments focus on ensuring people get choice in how they access care services, support independent living and reduce unnecessary appointments, regardless of where they live.

An example of this is the rollout of Digital Therapy services which has been successfully completed with 35 evidenced digital treatments available in all areas of Scotland, including all rural and remote areas. Across digital therapy services a range of technologies have been integrated into clinical service delivery to ensure that services can be accessed in a variety of ways to meet the circumstances of the individual. Over 74,000 referrals and self-referrals were received into digital therapy services in 2023-24.

Data provided by local services indicates high levels of usage of digital therapy services across remote and rural areas, with good clinical outcomes and showing much greater levels of treatment, accessibility and availability in these areas. NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney and NHS Western Isles are some of the biggest users of digital therapies when adjusted for population.

Near Me video consulting for groups continues to show positive impact in areas such as travel miles saved. However, enabled choice is driving greater uptake and engagement with 81% of people completing Near Me group courses over just 75% attending in person. The average weight loss is 3.2kg for Near Me group sessions for weight management groups, nearly twice the average weight loss (1.7kg) for an in-person session. Further information is published here - near-me-groups-report-march-2023_0.pdf

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-33674

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to ensure that rural areas, including Aberdeenshire, are adequately equipped with healthcare resources to address future challenges posed by climate change.

It is the responsibility of all Health Boards in Scotland, including those with rural communities, to ensure they put measures in place to address future challenges posed by climate change.

The Climate Change Sustainability and Environment Team within NHS Scotland Assure is available to provide support and advice to Scotland's Health Boards on climate change adaptation actions, including addressing any issues specific to rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-33751

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation criteria it uses to assess the effectiveness of its social media management spending.

Standard metrics particularly related to social media management include reach (how many people were reached), engagement (how many people engaged with the content) and or follower growth (how many people have chosen to associate with and regularly receive content from the account) among target audiences.

Social media activity will typically be part of a multi-channel campaign and assessing performance on social platforms spans a number of disciplines including of advertising, PR, influencer marketing and paid-for media management.

Our social media management and effectiveness is evaluated in a range of ways, according to the SMART objectives:

Evaluation from Scottish Government’s independent media planning and buying agencies, using audited sector data where available.
Indicators of direct response to a campaign and across specific platforms and channels such as post engagement, views of website content, calls to a website, vaccine uptake, cancer referrals, etc – during the campaign period. This is captured on a continuous basis and insight fed back into a process of continuous improvement.
Where possible, quantitative research also tracks pre and post campaign metrics such as awareness, message take-out, attitudes and claimed behaviour among the target audience.

Question reference: S6W-33714

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect the security of patient medical records in the context of any increasing cyber threats.

The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security. Our goal is to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks, and technologies. As the Scottish Health Competent Authority for health in Scotland we promote best practice, regulatory requirements, and global international standards for the improvement of cyber security practices.

Health Boards must individually go through the Network Information Systems Regulations audit lifecycle, demonstrating continual improvements against the Scottish Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework to the Scottish Health Competent Authority.

The Scottish Government has also invested in the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE). The CCoE empowers continuous improvements by focusing on key enablement pillars including Centralised Security, 24/7 Monitoring, Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Training & Awareness. It is complimented by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre which is a key partner to the CCoE, enhancing our national incident response capacity and capabilities.

Question reference: S6W-33713

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to allow patients to access their medical records digitally, and whether it plans to roll this out across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33703

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is for the digitisation of people’s medical records.